GERMANY/PKK: WHY HAMBURG RELEASED CANSIZ

C O N F I D E N T I A L HAMBURG 000029 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 5/4/2017 TAGS: PTER PREL KTFN GM TU FR SUBJECT: GERMANY/PKK: WHY HAMBURG RELEASED CANSIZ REF: BERLIN 855 CLASSIFIED BY: Duane Butcher, Consul General, U.S. Consulate General Hamburg, U.S. Department of State. REASON: 1.4 (b),(d) CLASSIFIED BY: Duane Butcher, Consul General, U.S. Consulate General Hamburg, U.S. Department of State. REASON: 1.4 (b),(d) CONFIDENTIAL SIPDIS ¶1. (C) On May 2, Office Director of the Hamburg Minister of Justice Henning Clasen informed ConGen Hamburg that PKK leader Sakine Cansiz had been released from jail on April 25 and that she had already returned to Paris, France. Cansiz had been arrested in Hamburg on March 19 pursuant to a Turkish arrest warrant distributed via Interpol (Ref). According to Clasen, the Hamburg High Court decided not to accept the Turkish International Request for Extradition because the request did not meet the minimum European requirements for extradition. While ConGen Hamburg has not been able to receive copies of the official court decision, Clasen read to us from the document, which contained the following statements; "... the warrant did not contain a concretely described crime with respect to the time, place, and manner of the commission of the offense of which to charge the accused..." and "... The evidence is not sufficient to prove whether the action, in particular that with which the accused has been charged, is an extraditable offense..." ¶2. (U) This message has been coordinated with Embassy Berlin. BUTCHER